import os
import time

source = ["/etc/passwd", "/etc/shadow"]

target_dir = "/tmp/backup"

today = target_dir + os.sep + time.strftime('%Y%m%d')

now = time.strftime("%H%M%S")

if not os.path.exists(today):
    os.mkdir(today)
    print("Successfully created directory", today)

target = today + os.sep + now + '.zip'

zip_command = "zip -qr {0} {1}".format(target, ' '.join(source))

if os.system(zip_command) == 0:
    print('Successful backup to', target)
else:
    print('Backup FAILED')